Facts & figures
Modern Languages
- #1 in NSW
- 2023 QS World University Rankings
French and Francophone Studies
Explore the language and cultures of the French-speaking world
Discover and expand your knowledge of French and Francophone literature, culture and history as you develop your fluency in the French language.
Since our inception in 1853, we have a long tradition of teaching and researching French and Francophone studies. We provide three pathways to a French and Francophone major: introductory, intermediate and advanced. We provide students with a deep understanding of the literature, culture and history of the French and Francophone worlds, while developing their fluency in French.
We are a vibrant community of scholars, teachers and students. Our academics have expertise in modern and contemporary literature, cinema, art, theory and translation.
Our study offering
Experience the rich history and cultural diversity of the official language of 29 countries (la Francophonie), spoken by more than 300 million people worldwide.
Undergraduate
- French and Francophone Studies (Introductory)*
- French and Francophone Studies (Intermediate)*
- French and Francophone Studies (Advanced)*
- French and Francophone Studies (Honours)
- Bachelor of Arts/Bachelor of Advanced Studies (Languages)
- Diploma of Language Studies
- Bachelor of Arts (Dual Degree, Sciences Po, France)
*Available in the shared pool of majors and minors
Research
Our research
Our researchers focus on a wide range of research areas, including:
- Artists’ writings, word and image studies
- Autobiographical writing, life writing and diary writing
- Comparative modernisms
- Digital humanities
- Feminist theory and women's writing
- Film and media studies
- Film festivals
- Francophone films and world cinema
- Francophone postcolonial studies
- French and Francophone crime fiction
- French and Francophone theory
- Intersection of genre and gender
- Modern and contemporary art
- Modern and contemporary literature and culture
- Pedagogy of French as a foreign language
- Representations of Paris in literature and culture
- South Pacific literature, art and culture
- Translation, self-translation and translingual writing.
Learn more: Languages and cultures research
Exchange
Our exchange programs provide life-changing experiences in France, Switzerland and Canada where students exercise their language skills and develop an understanding of cultural intricacies first hand.
- McGill University, Montreal, Canada
- Université de Montréal, Canada
- Sciences-Po, Paris, France
- Université d’Aix-Marseille, France
- Université Denis-Diderot (Paris VII), France
- Université Grenoble Alpes, France
- Université Jean-Moulin 3 Lyon, France
- Université Lumière Lyon 2, France
- Université de La Rochelle, France
- Université d’Orléans, France
- Université Paris, France
- Université de Tours, France
- Université de Genève, Switzerland
- Université de Lausanne, Switzerland
Learn more: Study abroad and student exchange
Our people
- Mrs Christel Rome
- Associate Professor Michelle Royer
- Dr Nathalie Segeral
- Dr Clara Sitbon
- Dr Carolyn Stott
- Dr Victoria Souliman
- Dr Lea Vuong
- Dr Sonia Wilson
Enquiries:
- Undergraduate coordinator and language level assessment: clara.sitbon@sydney.edu.au
- Honours: chiewhui.ho@sydney.edu.au and victoria.souliman@sydney.edu.au
- Exchange coordinator: nathalie.segeral@sydney.edu.au and christel.rome@sydney.edu.au
- Postgraduate research: lea.vuong@sydney.edu.au
- Research and student events: victoria.souliman@sydney.edu.au
- Beatrice Gallis
- Annabel Gassmann
- Josephine Goldman
- Eve Nachin
- Rita Orsini
- Christel Rome
- Emeritus Professor Ivan Barko
- Emeritus Professor Angus Martin
- Emeritus Professor Margaret Sankey
- Associate Professor Francoise Grauby
- Dr Althea Arguelles-Ling
- Dr Edward Duyker
- Dr Caroline Lipovsky
- Dr Elizabeth Rechniewski
We hold regular seminars and events that seek to engage with the French-speaking community at large, and to provide a platform for new and exciting research in French and Francophone studies.
See our school's calendar for a full listing of upcoming events.
Breathing and Relationality: Air in Aimé Césaire, Ananda Devi and Luce Irigaray – Professor Françoise Lionnet (Harvard University, USA)
Wednesday 6 December 2023, 5–6:30pm
In this lecture, Professor Lionnet will discuss Césaire, Devi and Irigaray’s articulation of the process of breathing as a key element in our human ability to resist oppression, understand relationality, and emerge into the community of sentient beings. Césaire’s poem “Le cri” and Ananda Devi’s La vie de Joséphin le fou will be discussed. Irigaray’s L’oubli de l’air will serve as theoretical framework.
About the Memorial Lectures
The Sonia Marks Memorial fund was set up in 1985 to commemorate the life and achievements of Sonia Marks, whose untimely death deprived the University of a much-appreciated teacher and colleague. Each year the fund provides prizes for students from the introductory language stream and a memorial lecture on French and Francophone Studies.
Past lectures
2019: Teaching ‘French’ in Brexit Britain
2012: Learning from Teaching
Please check the SLC Events website for our next Sonia Marks Memorial Lecture.
15–17 February 2023, The University of Sydney
Our three-day interdisciplinary symposium is devoted to cultural expressions of climate change across Oceania. Crucially, our symposium will act as a platform for exchanging ideas, showcasing artistic voices, and facilitating new connections between French-speaking Oceania and other regions of the South Pacific.
Follow the Draft Facebook page for upcoming and past seminars.
We hold regular seminars with presenters from our department including research staff, students and associates, as well as other disciplines within the University of Sydney and external institutions from Australia and beyond.
Everyone is welcome to attend.
For more information, please contact our research events coordinator Dr Victoria Souliman (victoria.souliman@sydney.edu.au) or browse our event calendar for upcoming French Connections seminars.
Join our monthly workshop series facilitating discussion around the teaching and learning of French as a foreign language across the Australian university system.
Contact Dr Carolyn Stott (carolyn.stott@sydney.edu.au) for dates and further details.
Contact
Address
-
School of Languages and Cultures, Room 506, Brennan MacCallum Building A18, The University of Sydney NSW 2006
Featured news
